Abstract
The underwater wet welding (UWW) technology is rapidly developing as a crucial method in the maintenance work of marine equipment and offshore platform. The rapid development of UWW technology has also exposed the problems to be solved urgently. Therefore, the influence of welding parameters on the weld appearance and welding spatters was investigated in this paper. The main welding parameters used in the study are welding current, arc voltage, welding speed and the contact tip-to-work distance (CTWD). Through the orthogonal test, it is found that, as each welding parameter increases within a certain range, the amounts of welding spatter decreases first and then increases, and the weld forming effect first becomes better and then deteriorates. The amount of wet welding spatter is mainly affected by the welding speed. When the welding speed is low, the splash is more, and the change of the welding current and the arc voltage has a little effect on the number of spatters. When the welding speed is large, the spatter is most with a small welding current and a large arc voltage. After evaluating the weld morphology obtained by welding under various parameters, a set of optimal parameters was obtained. The best parameters for the underwater wet welding of stainless steel with self-shielded flux-cored wire are determined to be 200 A-29 V-2.0 mm/s-15 mm (CTWD).
Highlights
304 stainless steel is widely used in various offshore engineering platforms due to its excellent corrosion resistance
The welding process is greatly affected by water and the weld morphology was extremely deteriorated
The welding base material selected in this test was 304 stainless steel, the main element content and mechanical properties are shown in Tables 1 and 2
Summary
304 stainless steel is widely used in various offshore engineering platforms due to its excellent corrosion resistance. During the construction and maintenance of these platforms, underwater welding technology is being widely used and rapidly developed [1,2,3]. UWW, in particular, especially underwater wet flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), has rapidly developed in recent years on account of its high efficiency and ease of automation [4,5,6]. For instance, the drastic and unavoidable cooling effect of water on the arc and the molten pool makes the weld appearance extremely poor with internal and surface defects and a mass of spatters. Guo et al achieved initial control of the wet welding droplet transfer process by using pulse current [14].
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